Go Down Fighting

Last week we saw some photos of the grand citrus pamper project--- hand clearing all the weeds and grass from under the remaining eight citrus trees, heavy top dressing with a mix of tasty organic amendments, and a moderate layer of tree pruner mulch. It's finally finished, and the organic amendments and mulch have started breaking down to work their ecological magic. How's it going so far?

It's well-nigh impossible to separate out the effects of the project from all the other factors in play. Until the deluge of this past week, it's been ideal fruit tree weather. So we expect to see most trees looking their best. Still, one can point to signs of possible turnaround.

The Temple orange tree was the first to undergo maximal pampering, a good six or eight weeks ago. It's put out vigorous new growth of remarkably healthy-looking leaves. This is despite the fact that its trunk looks to be in the worst shape of any of this citrus, with major damage from unknown causes--- raccoons, insects, disease, or clumsy string-trimmer maneuvers by well-intentioned lawn-mowing employees. A couple of extra years of these fabulous oranges would more than justify the summer's efforts.

Next to the Temple is the unknown variety of sweet, juicy orange. It's really struggled in the past year, fruiting too heavily, as trees often do when heavily stressed, but bringing little of the fruit to edible maturity. Its slow dieback has continued, but in the past couple of weeks some decent new foliage has appeared. In a few months we'll find out whether its production has restarted.

Oddly, the large red navel tree has the thickest foliage but the most diseased leaves. It's putting out a lot of new growth, though still poorly formed. I've heard that red navels are more resistant to greening, so maybe there's something to hope for here.

The little grapefruit tree has also flushed heavily. The leaves are showing less evidence of the nutrient deficiencies brought on by poor circulation from HLB infection, but many are poorly formed. On the encouraging side, the few fruit that remain after thinning look good, and aren't pulling all the nutrients out of the nearby leaves as has happened in the past.

And the big lemon tree continues on its merry way. It has always looked fairly healthy, and always been productive--- six months a year of very good lemons is more than one has a right to demand from any tree. Perhaps this investment of effort will keep them coming.

The nicely mulched beds look pretty, at least, and we've seen some encouraging signs on the trees. Will this summer's sweat and toil save them? Except maybe for the lemon trees, I don't think so. The challenges are just too many, and they are too far down the slippery slope. But I hope it will bring some more years of good fruit from them. And there will be the satisfaction of knowing that we went down fighting.